Dan_Nessett.NSD@LCCMAIL.OCF.LLNL.GOV (Dan Nessett) (09/25/90)
REGARDING Re : potential misuse of the internetwork Recently, I have noticed a new type of communication creeping into internet mailing lists. People are using the lists for commercial advertisements. I am not an expert on the problem, but I beleive it is improper (perhaps illegal) to use the internetwork for commercial purposes such as the advertisement sent recently to the kerberos mailing list by Mr. Fox on behalf of Mr. Hill (see below). While a certain bending of the rules might be acceptable for information concerning products related to computer networking and distributed systems, Mr. Fox's advertisement for the sale of part-ownership in a ranch property in Redding, CA. seems to bend the rules to the point where they break. Since the incidence of this abuse of internetwork facilities is on the rise, I wonder if the IAB needs to take a look at the problem before it gets out of hand. For this reason I am forwarding this observation to Vint Cerf, who heads the IAB, for his consideration. Dan Nessett -------------------- recent advertisement sent to Kerberos Mailing List ------- FOR SALE ======== Part ownership in a Ranch Resort near the town of Redding, located in northern California. This is not a Time-Share; once you are an owner you can visit 365 days a year for as long as you wish to stay. There are camper and trailer hookups as well as areas for tents. What you get with this is 250 cabins, 2 swimming pools, 2 hot tubs, a 42 room hotel, 100+ horses, dance hall, club house, restaurant, tennis courts, volleyball courts, Gun range (pistol, Rifle and Archery), 2 sites for tents, 2 sites for campers, hiking trails, trails for 4WD and other off road vehicles, 3 lakes for fishing, and much more. You are near Lake Shasta, but not too near. There is Cross Country Skiing as well as Hill Skiing each year. The Ranch is a place to get away from the working world and enjoy life all over again. I am leaving CA. and wish to sell my interest in this Ranch I do not plan on coming back. The asking price is $140,000, but I am willing to hear all who are interested. You can call me at (408) 929-3361 (home), (408) 366-4137/4108 (work) or you can send me an e-mail. Thanks... - Cornelius Hill
jis@MIT.EDU (Jeffrey I. Schiller) (09/25/90)
Actually these messages are the result of a software bug and are not intentional acts. The individuals in question posted their messages to what should have been local for-sale bulletin boards. Here is a message we received on this issue: Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 08:02:57 PDT From: kolk@smiley.Stanford.EDU (Dan Kolkowitz) To: jtkohl@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Subject: Re: Your recent mail/post to 'kerberos@athena.mit.edu'/comp.protocols.kerberos this is a bug in bnews--if someone has a group that overlaps with a distribution domain, e.g. na, then it will get posted to every group that has that distribution. Cnews fixes this. We will be moving to it shortly. That's why this kind of stuff shows up. -Jeff
vcerf@NRI.RESTON.VA.US (09/29/90)
Dan, this is absolutely an abuse of the system, if not legally, then at least by common consent. As you may know, many of the service providers in the Internet community (and there are now MANY of them) have been tussling with expressing acceptable use practices. The initial government limitations expressed by DARPA in the earliest phases of Internet are no longer fully applicable because there are so many parts of the system which are not supplied or subsidized by the government. However, the community of users has come to accept a kind of tacit set of "rules of the road" which sets limits on the kinds of "advertising" which is considered acceptable. Solicitations of the kind you sent to me are absolutely out of bounds on distribution lists intended for technical exchange. Job solicitations are also considered out of bounds for the simple reason that employers who pay for access to Internet have a right to assume their employees will not be subject to head-hunting in the technical distribution lists. If someone set up a distribution list which was devoted to job solicitations or product offers, perhaps the rules could be more accommodating, but then the providers of the underlying Internet communication service might have some strong opinions about the admissibility of the distribution list. I appreciate your sensitivity in bringing this particular incident to my attention. I will be working with the IAB, IESG and FNC as well as with the regionals to clarify the question of acceptable use as much as possible. It is quite possible that the net result will be a kind of ethical statement which, while not having the force of law, could influence the user community. A stronger result could possibly grow out of this discussion, but it might only be strongly enforceable for parts of the system subsidized by the U.S. or other governments. The fully commercial portions of the Internet may not want a priori limitations on what is permissible to send, although the users of the various mailing lists have a right, in my opinion, to ask that certain rules of propriety be observed for specific lists. I would be very interested in any further thoughts you may have on this topic. Vint